Chris Dorr's recent post on MoviePass helped me recognize the world as it truly is today. It wasn't MoviePass that I needed to recognize. It was that the same thing that allowed Independent Film to flourish is the same thing that is now spurring on innovation everywhere. Once filmmakers stopped asking for permission to tell their stories, the floodgates opened to a far more diverse approach to culture generation. To the powers that be the end of permission looks like anarchy, but to the leaders to come, this is the stepping stone to necessary change. And we are seeing that now.
MoviePass, for those yet to explore it, is essentially the Netflix of Theater-going: One price for access to an all you can eat buffet. MoviePass also has made a history of getting the stakeholders seriously bent out of shape. From the onset, MoviePass did not see a requirement to ask for permission to innovate. And they got shut out by the theaters subsequently as a result. But they found a work around and sustained. Now they have found a better way, and people are getting riled up again.

The first thing that bothered people about MoviePass was that the theater owners were not consulted. Unfortunately civil behavior falls by the wayside in the charge to innovate. Remember when you had to call everyone for a group meeting? And now you just send a group email. No one wants to move slow any more. They prefer to just get it done. Since MoviePass is paying the theaters for the tickets anyway, why is it such a big deal -- particularly if more people are now going to the movies, buying more popcorn, and shelling out for parking. Doesn't everyone win?

Oftentimes we know not what we do when we step ahead in line. Where does this path of efficiency lead. Virtually all social media and online activity serves one god: the mighty one of data mining. The aggregation of all our likes, wants, connections, and routes is generating new wealth and multiple hands into our wallets. Is it really theirs to take?

"Every time you click — on a “like” button, or a download link — you are producing. You’re producing “exhaust data,” information about yourself that is then used to market to you and others like you. Filmmakers need to be aware of this new model. Other people are monetizing it now, but they don’t have the same relationship to film culture” as the previous generation of distributors."

Does the information about our wants, interests, and desires belong to us? Are others free to take it? Do they need to ask permission? What if they just use it, and don't display it? What if by using that information, they make our life better, or at least appear to be better? Do people care? Should they?

As evidenced by people's use of Facebook, Twitter, and many many other social media sites, I honestly don't think most people care about this sort of data mining privacy issue (which is not to say they shouldn't).

I also think many people LOVE the efficiency that comes from data mining . Honestly, if no one is now pairing film goers with discount dinner deals in the neighborhood, do we want to stop them from ever doing so? If data mining improves the value proposition of movie going, thus increasing attendance and generating wealth for the creators, their supporters, and many folks in between should we be shutting it down. Shouldn't increasing the value proposition of entertainment be something that all movie people want ?

You can count that many new services are being developed that aim to this, and I think theaters should encourage it as it will make moviegoing more enticing.

As a filmgoer, I tried MoviePass while I was still living in NYC. I shared my thoughts on the future of film business with them, and the company gave me a free trial membership. I am obviously already an avid moviegoer, but the MoviePass model increased even my attendance and reduced the value of things like Netflix. Why have a hamburger at home when you can have a filet minon in a palace. Because I felt that I had saved money, despite being tight with my cash, I coughed up for popcorn and other delights. I had about 7 theaters accessible to me that took MoviePass (prior to this new credit card thing they announced) and it got me to the theaters at least twice a week. The theaters all got paid the full price possible from my ticket — I saw that they regularly input $15 because they could.

I totally get the frustration about not being consulted, but I think Chris Dorr's article is right on: permission is not the business policy of today.

We in the film industry need to come up with ways that are not capital intensive that improve the value proposition of cinema. I think the easiest way to do that is to build more social events into movie going — audience needs to transform into community. Audiences need to be curated as much as films do. Ultimately increasing the social value and utility of movies is one of the services that film festivals play — as do community theaters.

There is huge value in community, well beyond ticket sales. As data mining demonstrates, it can generate wealth. MoviePass seems to realize that. I bet MoviePass can be moved to become a real ally of community theaters, as well as movie goers. Ultimately everyone wants to increase theater attendance — and that is the only way that I can think of that the MoviePass business model can work (and if it does, doesn't everyone win?). Filmgoers will get a better experience, theaters will sell more tickets & concessions, and MoviePass has direct access to the customers. Winwinwin. Yes?

The NY Times Sunday Magazine has a thought provoking article by Jeffrey Rosen entitled "The Web Means The End Of Forgetting". It's filled with lots of good points quite relevant to the film biz in this time of audience aggregation and automized taste curation.
Rosen points out:

The truth is we can’t possibly control what others say or know or think about us in a world of Facebook and Google, nor can we realistically demand that others give us the deference and respect to which we think we’re entitled. On the Internet, it turns out, we’re not entitled to demand any particular respect at all, and if others don’t have the empathy necessary to forgive our missteps, or the attention spans necessary to judge us in context, there’s nothing we can do about it.

I have been pretty selective about what personal information I put up on the web. Yet at the same time I have rated the heck out of 1000s of titles on Netflix. Granted our tastes are different from our reputations, but needless to say, I was a bit disturbed to find out that that information I gave Netflix was not as private as I thought. I want Netflix and its amazing algorithm to find more films for me to watch, but I don't want others to find me by what I watch.

Among the many good ideas and suggestions within the article was that users could be prompted to select an expiration date before saving any data -- thus the web would forget it for you. It goes on to mention many new innovations on the web to help maintain privacy. Among them, TigerText, which "allows text-message senders to set a time limit from one minute to 30 days after which the text disappears from the company’s servers on which it is stored and therefore from the senders’ and recipients’ phones." It's not named after Tiger Wood's texts to his mistress, btw.

The world is changing. Different generations have different attitudes about privacy. But it is clear we all value it and just as clear as those that can collect such info, aren't truly respecting the responsibility that comes with it.

A University of California, Berkeley, study released in April found that large majorities of people between 18 and 22 said there should be laws that require Web sites to delete all stored information about individuals (88 percent) and that give people the right to know all the information Web sites know about them (62 percent) — percentages that mirrored the privacy views of older adults. A recent Pew study found that 18-to-29-year-olds are actually more concerned about their online profiles than older people are, vigilantly deleting unwanted posts, removing their names from tagged photos and censoring themselves as they share personal information, because they are coming to understand the dangers of oversharing.

We are living at the end times for the Segmented Self. We are watching all our identities merge. Ultimately, this has to mean that we start to take real responsibility, not just for ourselves, but for others, our community, and our world.

As traditional media merges with new & social media, the issues we need to be concerned about also start to change. Filmmakers are only now starting to wake up to the fact that they should be the owners of the data that their work generates, particularly if they are being asked to license their work for such low fees as currently are in vogue.
Let's say that you do gather 500,000 email addresses during the build and release of your movie. What are you going to do with those addresses? What moral and ethical issues are related to this?

Is it just my imagination or have I really not seen a privacy panel at a film convention? Who is going to take the lead on this?

Facebook removed its users' ability to control who can see their own interests and personal information. Certain parts of users' profiles, "including your current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests" will now be transformed into "connections," meaning that they will be shared publicly. If you don't want these parts of your profile to be made public, your only option is to delete them.

The EU has a whole team of privacy guys. Where's someone like that in the US? We do have someone there to monitor privacy breaches that occur as a result of the Homeland Protection Act, but that is just the tip of the iceberg, and well, if he's appointed by this administration, how are we supposed to trust him?

With congress finally asking all the Internet companies what they do with the all the info they gather secretly from the consumer, now's the time to take this further. Ars has a good write-up about it here.

As consumers, we should have to "opt-in" and not "opt-out" regarding what data of ourselves gets automatically collected. We could this trend of info-grab earlier here.

Of course, nothing will ever be as loyal and cuddly as PRIVACY. Do you remember what that was like, you know, back B.B. (Before Bush). Privacy was once FREEDOM's sibling. Older brother, I think. Anyway if you want to check out what that Big Brother has become, check this out. Pretty scary. But definitely a good idea about how to take something we take all too much for granted, and get people righteously stirred up about it.

It's a good idea to fight for your right to keep you personal information private -- before it's too late.

SF Film Society Blog

Buy your tickets to see #LeahWolchok's #VerySemiSerious at the @sfjewishfilm Saturday August 1!

See #Meru and more #SFIFF theatrical releases coming to #BayArea theaters this month. Read all about it on our blog > blog.sffs.org

Congratulations to Tom Gilroy on winning the 2015 #Djerassi Residency Award / #SFFS Screenwriting Fellowship! Read all about Gilroy and his winning script Our Lady of the Snow on our blog at blog.sffs.org

See @josefkubotawladyka's @manossuciasmovie at @roxie_theater Aug 7! In mean the meantime be sure to apply for the SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant at our site sffs.org.

Ya snooze, ya lose. Apply NOW for the FilmHouse Residency program before it's too late! Early Deadline is TOMORROW. Apply at site ASAP > sffs.org

Check out @SOMArts #nightlightparty ! See and experience works from over 50 artists on July 18, 8:30-midnight.

#AardmanAnimations is releasing an advance screening of their new film #ShaunTheSheepMovie August 4 at #ClayTheater! Don't miss the opportunity to meet up with co-directors #MarkBurton and #RichardStarzak who will be answering audience questions after the screening.

Don't forget to check out this gem directed by #LeahMeyerhoff screening 7:00 tomorrow night at @roxie_theater!!!

Filmmaker @mike.day talks about the challenges and adventures behind the making of #TheIslandAndTheWhales in our latest blog post at blog.sffs.org. Check it out! #SFIFF